Guardian editor Rusbridger to quit

Alan Rusbridger will step down as editor in chief of the Guardian after 20 years next summer, he said today.

He said he would take over as chairman of the Scott Trust which owns Guardian Media Group.

Writing on Twitter, he said it was a “great honour to be asked to take this role”.

Mr Rusbridger joined the paper, founded in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian, as a reporter in 1979 and became editor in 1995 succeeding Peter Preston.

In his stint in the top job, he has guided it through a change in format – it went from broadsheet to Berliner when many of its rivals went tabloid – and a move of office from London’s Farringdon to Kings Cross.

He has guided the paper through the online revolution which has seen it commit itself to the principle of open access and attempt to become an international brand with offices in Australia and the United States.